City cops crack one-year-old cyber crime

​Hyderabad: Finding it difficult to cheat visa aspirants by residing in India, some gangs have formed syndicate abroad, to dupe gullible people. However, such incidents are about to come to an end, as the city Cyber Crime Police traced the accused. According to sources, six city residents, who wanted to work in Australia, were duped to a tune of Rs 36 lakh by unknown persons in Bangkok last year.

Trace the accused in fake job racket to Kolkata. Efforts are on to nab the members of international syndicate based in Bangkok, London

The one-year-long investigation carried out by the city Cyber Crime Police led the sleuths to travel to Kolkata to nab the accused who had sent mails by using dynamic IP (Internet Protocol) addresses pretending to be in Bangkok and London. About 10 months ago, Ali, a travel agent from Hyderabad received a mail from an unknown person claiming that he was a visa broker in Bangkok and helped needy Indians to get Australian visa at cheaper fares.

Ali replied to the mail asking the unknown person to talk to him, to confirm his identity. The next day, Ali received a call from London and another call from Bangkok from two different persons and they told Ali that they were helping Indians to get Australian visa adding that Indians were denied visas by the Australian government and the needy people had to come to Bangkok for faster processing.

When Ali told all these to six old acquaintances, who were jobless, they agreed to make a trip to Bangkok, if Ali accompanied them. Accordingly, they left for Bangkok in August 2015, just a few days before blasts took place in Bangkok and met the people who promised help. After a two-day stay, the agents asked the aspirants to deposit Rs 6 lakh in Bangkok currency with agents.

The agents helped to open bank accounts and the amount was deposited, but as security, they had taken the bank passbooks, ATM cards and other details. The very next day, the aspirants found the money missing from their accounts. Shocked victims requested the bank officials to probe, but they did not respond.

They tried to contact the agents and stayed for two more days, but on August 17, explosions occurred. “The six persons who went to Bangkok were Muslims; they were worried about staying as police were grilling all the visiting Muslims. Including Ali, all the seven came to Hyderabad and lodged a complaint after one month,” said an officer who has almost cracked the case.

The officer said it took a very long time to trace mails, as they were rerouted using dynamic IP addresses, but they identified the location. “Finally, the mailing address was traced to Kolkata last week, but none is living there. We are on the job of finding the accused,” the officer said.

The officer said the victims told that agents in Bangkok spoke in Hindi and English, and claimed as Indians. The numbers from which the calls were received by Ali, are traced to London and Bangkok, but it is suspected that the accused would have used VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), the investigator who is Kolkata said.